Brave
New World is a 6 unit of credit, wholly online general studies course that looks at the
science in science fiction. The information provided below gives details
of the rationale and course assessment.

Why
a Course Like Brave New World?

Brave
New World is not a traditional science course! BNW uses science fiction literature,
movies and TV series as starting points for conveying the "big picture"
of our understanding of science at (close to) the beginning of the 21st century. The concepts
of this "big picture" science will be conveyed not with equations but with words
illustrated by the media of film and book. We will use the concepts of current
science to examine what is and what is not possible in areas such as space travel,
time travel, artificial intelligence, robotics and the future evolution of the
human race. We have modules on the environment, and on the importance of the wonderful world wide web which connects us all. The internet, mobile phones and social media are changing our world in ways we could never have guessed.

Why
use science fiction? Often the greatest contact that the public has with science
is through science fiction, particularly movies and TV shows. Films
such as Contact, The Dish, Jurassic Park and Independence Day, and television
series such as Stargate and the X-Files, have captured the public imagination, providing an excellent
starting place for science education. One of the aims of BNW is to impart the
ability and knowledge to teach the science covered in this course to others.A particular phenomenon that has acquired a strong cult following is "The Big Bang Theory". This comedy actually contains some quite good physics and science, and we will discuss this in BNW.

Contact

Organisation

The course is organised
into five Modules, of around two weeks.

Modules

The five modules are:

1) Understanding the Universe: Astronomy and the physics of space and time.
2) Exploring the Universe: Space travel, space exploration and astrobiology.
3) The Human Web: Computers, communication and the basic conectedness of the human race.
4) The future of planet Earth: the environment, food supply, the future of the Human race.
5) Physics is fun? A look at physics in popular culture (I can't believe I writing this - 15 years ago when I started the course this would have taken about 5 mins!)

Each
module will have:

On-line
lectures (usually 2 or 3) that:

Provide an introduction to the science topics of the module.

Discuss
the science commonly encountered in science fiction novels and movies relevant
to the current topic.

Discuss
the possible (as opposed to the impossible) future developments in the science.

An
on-line tutorial discussion.
The online discussions will be moderated by a tutor; however, the idea
is that the much of the discussion and input will come from the student members
of the discussion groups in the form of both questions and answers. Students will
be marked on their participation in the tutorial discussion groups.

The
online tutorial discussion will cover:

The
Science.

Relevant
science fiction novels, movies and TV shows with details of the areas of the science
topic that each deals with.

The
social and philosophical issues raised by the books and movies relevant to the
topic.

Associated recommended science fiction movies and TV episodes. These will form a starting
point for scientific discussion groups. The movies will provide a basis for introducing
a topic rather than being part of the core learning. The recommended movies are
drawn from (but not limited to) The Matrix, Event Horizon, Contact, 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Terminator II, Blade Runner, Dr Strangelove, The Dish, Avatar. We welcome student suggestions for each topic.

Associated
recommended science fiction novels. Once again, these novels will form a starting
point for scientific discussion groups. Our list of relevant sci fi books is not
exhaustive, so we welcome your input as to which novels you think have something
to say about the current module.

A
selection of New Scientist and Scientific American articles, or relevant non-fiction
popular science books. Many of these are so well written that they are a pleasure
to read!

Online quizzes
. The online quizzes are open-book, to help you learn
the content, and the questions are directly related to the lecture material.
It is marked, but you can take the quiz up to twice. Your final
mark for the quiz will be the average of both your attempts.

Assessment

Assessment
will be from coursework, quizzes and assignments. The assessment tasks for this
course will all be in the form of contributions to Brave New Review, the course's on-line science journal. By the end of this course, we will have produced
a review of science, science fiction and the future, as a collaborative effort
that we can all enjoy and benefit from.

Online Discussions/tutorials
(25%). During weeks 3 through to 10 you will need to contribute to
the on-line discussions (tutorials). You will be given questions and
topics which relate to the lecture for that week to discuss to start
the discussion. Our aim is to stimulate thought, so valid contributions
include your own questions on the current topic, and also your answers
to the questions posed by other students.

On-line Quizzes
(25%). The quizzes ask you questions about the content of the lectures
and are open-book.

Major Research
Assignment (25%). For this part of the assessment you are required
to report/ popular article on an area of science that you find interesting,
and your contribution will be included in Brave New Review. An alternative
to this is to write a science fiction story that illustrates some of
the science that you are interested in. The article should be about
1200 words in length.

Critique of Article in Popular Media (15%). You are required to chose one
article in Brave New Review (either from the current session or past
editions) for which you need to to write a letter in response.

Blog posting on scientific topic (10%). This will published on the course website.